"A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes." – Wittgenstein

Getting By With A Little Help From My Friends

One of the difficult things about being a cynic are those moments of beauty which, like a religious experience, cannot be explained away. The moment washes over you and even upon reflection the desire to redefine it is absent of any appeal. When this happens the cynic can only smile and appreciate the hope which on other days would escape him. How can the mirror serve as a companion after this? Has it not become a judge which silently interrogates him at every glance? The poor cynic must forget, falling back on the comfort of his doubt and turn his gaze from every reflection.

And still his friends stand their guard.

This is a small celebration of their solidarity. This is a thank you. From the hallowed walls of Facebook, my timeline reads these. Some are direct or funny while others have a history or underlying meaning which requires explanation. For example, when you read Chris Gandy’s it must be within the context of a fellow cynic returning the cursed blessings of the abyss we call Facebook. That he returned and “friended” me was a comical sigh of relief. Wade Baugher’s is one which has a nice depth to it.

Repeat after me:
I’m gonna be free.
And I’m gonna be brave.
I’m gonna live each day as if it were my last: fantastically, courageously, with grace.
And in the dark of the night (and it does get dark) when I call a name, it’ll be YOUR name.
Let’s go everywhere even though we’re scared.
Because it’s life and it’s happening. It’s really really happening.
Right. Now.

A society that has sacrificed so much to material wealth that it has forgotten the human heart and the better human aspirations degenerates into something compassionless, doctrinaire, ignorant and ultra conservative. When this happens, fundamental solutions to calamities become impossible. If we protect the truth and are resolute, we are capable of creating peace and prosperity. And the truth we must protect ought to be high and great. Our great truth—the thing that we must protect to the utmost—involves ethics and the best of human nature. But more basic than anything else is our duty to guard the truth of life, the truth that we and the universe are one, and that a single ordinary human thought contains the entirety of universal life.